Father of Louvre attacker says son is not a terrorist

CAIRO: The father of the machete-wielding man who was shot by a guard as he tried to enter Paris's Louvre museum said on Saturday his son was not an Islamist and the French were only accusing him of terrorism to excuse the brutality used to stop him.

"For them to say in the end that he is a terrorist is nonsense ... This is a cover up so they don’t have to apologise or justify the acts of this soldier who used brute force with a poor young man of 29."

Al-Hamamy's uncle, Riyad al- Refaai, said: "I find it incomprehensible that a young man on his way to commit a terrorist act only has a knife with him. If you tell me he had a gun, a rifle, then yes, I’d believe you, but I don’t know ... All we want is the truth," he said.

Al Refaai said he son worked in Sharja in the United Arab Emirates and was on a business trip to Paris for a week. French authorities say al-Hamamy arrived in France on Jan. 26 after obtaining a tourist visa in Dubai.